Trojans fly past Eagles 35-21

As Dyersburg head coach Bart Stowe walked off the field at Chester County High School in Henderson Friday night, he was pleased with the team's performance and optimistic about the future. Having played well in the first half against highly ranked Covington at home the week before, there seemed to be a letdown in the second half as penalties, mistakes and fatigue contributed to the Trojans' 20-3 loss.

In Friday's game however, the team was in control on both sides of the ball for most of the game running the score up to 35-7 before the Eagles' junior running back Trannard Cobb moved to the quarterback position in the fourth quarter and used his legs to juke his way through the Dyersburg defense to score two touchdowns. It was too little, too late for the home team, however, as Dyersburg won the game by a final score of 35-21, running its record to 2-1 on the season while Chester County dropped to 1-3.

"The boys showed a lot of character to come back after a hard, emotional loss last week," said Stowe as he followed his team to the bus. "I'm proud of how they bounced back. We can build off this game tonight."

Chester County won the coin toss and elected to defer to the second half. Dyersburg wasted no time getting on the scoreboard, running just three plays when senior Oshawn Smith ran to the right and followed his blockers 63 yards up the sidelines and scored the Trojans' first of five touchdowns with 10:57 left in the opening quarter. Smith, who plays both offense and defense for the Trojans, ran the ball 17 times for 199 yards in the game.

Chester County tried to move the football through the air early in the game but the Trojan secondary stiffened when junior safety Clint Perkins intercepted Eagle quarterback Sam Kesler's pass at the 15-yard line with 6:23 remaining in the first quarter.

Dyersburg picked up one first down before an errant pass was ruled a lateral and the Eagle defense scooped it up giving Chester County the ball in Trojan territory. The Dyersburg defense forced a fourth and two on the Trojan 15-yard line with only 1.2 seconds left in the first quarter. Eagle head coach Michael Hodum called time out and set up a sweep by Tyler Seagraves who raced into the end zone to even the score at 7.

Smith picked up his second touchdown for Dyersburg with 4:06 left in the first half with a nifty 33-yard run up the middle as the Trojan offensive line opened a huge hole for the Trojan senior. Montavious LaGrone scored from 11 yards out with 1:06 left in the first half to push the Trojans advantage to 21-7.

After an exchange of punts early in the third quarter, Dyersburg's Shavon Henderson raced into the end zone from 10 yards out only to have the play called back because of a Trojan hold. When Dyersburg's drive stalled back on the Eagle 20-yard line, Stowe called on senior kicker Evan Walden to attempt a 33-yard field goal. An Eagle lineman barely tipped the ball sending it right where it hit the upright in the south end zone. The score remained 21-7 but the Trojans had controlled the clock as there was only 5:42 left in the third quarter.

On the Eagles' next possession, Perkins got a "pick six" by intercepting Kesler's pass and racing 32 yards to pay dirt, extending the Trojan lead to 28-7 with 2:31 left in the third quarter.

Dyersburg's Jonathan Thomas raced 18 yards up the middle for the final Trojan touchdown of the evening with 8:07 left in the game as the offensive line continued to dominate the Eagles by creating huge holes for the Trojans' running backs.

At that point, Chester County's Cobb put on a show from the shotgun position, fumbling the ball twice only to pick it up and dodge several Trojan players as he danced into the end zone, bringing the Eagles closer at 35-21, the final score of the game.

"Haywood County is a big region game for us next week," said Stowe. "They'll be better than Chester County and they'll play us hard."

The Trojans travel to Brownsville next Friday for the 7:30 p.m. kickoff against the Tomcats.